Span Diagnostics to sell 45% stake in JV to Japanese partner

Span Diagnostics to sell 45% stake in JV to Japanese partner

By Anuradha Verma

  • 27 Mar 2015

Gujarat-based Span Diagnostics Ltd (Span) has decided to offload its 45 per cent equity holding in its joint venture Nihon Kohden Diagnostics Pvt Ltd to Japan-based Nihon Kohden Corporation or any of its subsidiaries, according to a stock market disclosure.

The deal is subject to approvals from FIPB and completion of regulatory formalities. The financial terms of the transaction, however, could not be ascertained.

Nihon Kohden and India's Span Diagnostics had reached an agreement to form the JV in 2008. In India, the Japanese company already had a distributor partnership with Span for its hematology analysers before forming the JV.

The formation of JV was part of the Japanese firm's efforts to expand sales and support activities of its hematology analysers and reagents to the company's core products such as patient monitors.

Span was founded in 1972 as the first Indian firm to manufacture a range of IVD products with in-house R&D operations. The firm claims that of around 50,000 clinical laboratories in India, more than 90 per cent use reagents it manufactures.

Span Diagnostics caters to different sections of diagnostics like Immunology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Serology, Histopathology and instrumentation.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)